Ducks insider: No. 5 Oregon gets its crack at Kansas State

Kansas State Wildcats head coach Bill Snyder watches from the sideline during the fourth quarter of the NCAA college football game against Baylor Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012, in Waco Texas. Baylor won 52-24. AP Photo

Two years ago, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder decided to back out of
a game at Oregon scheduled for 2012 that, as it turned out, would have
been one of the marquee matchups of the season, featuring two national
championship contenders.

"From my standpoint ... it didn't fit
our scheduling philosophies," Snyder said Sunday night during a
teleconference following the announcement that the No. 7 Wildcats will
face the No. 5 Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan.3.

The
cancellation left a hole, no, a crater, in Oregon's schedule that the
Ducks scrambled to fill with an FCS program, Tennessee Tech, greatly
weakening UO's schedule.

Oregon coach Chip Kelly said Sunday that he never received an explanation for the cancellation.

"We
were just told we had to find another game," he said. "I didn't ask
why. And is it ironic (to play Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl)? I don't
know. We'll see."

Oh, it's on!

Oregon (11-1) managed to
overcome the loss of that potential schedule-making win to climb to
second in the BCS standings before losing to Stanford on Nov.17.

So, no harm, no foul from that standpoint. But there has always been a sense of bitterness in Eugene over the cancellation.

Last
year, Kelly lamented that teams wouldn't come to Autzen Stadium and
pointed to Kansas State as one of those teams that not only wouldn't
come, but backed out of a commitment.

Oregon Ducks head coach Chip Kelly watches from the sideline as the University of Oregon faces the University of California Berkeley. Bruce Ely / The Oregonian

It makes life difficult
for Oregon, now a recognized national power, to ramp up its
nonconference schedule when teams won't play nicely.

Some Top 25
teams won't go to Oregon because the 54,000-seat stadium isn't big
enough to financially justify the risk of getting whipped in one of the
toughest places to play. Some simply don't want to deal with Oregon's
no-huddle, spread-option nightmare on the road.

Who could blame them?

But,
as fate would have it, Oregon will get Kansas State (11-1) on its
schedule after all, in a game that for the Ducks could be considered the
next best thing to reaching the national title game.

The Ducks
could get a win over the highest-ranked team they have played in a bowl
game since defeating No.3 Colorado in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.

Yes,
last season's Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin carried with it the status
of a victory in the "granddaddy of them all," which Oregon hadn't done
since 1917. But the Badgers were ranked No. 9 and never in the running
for the national title.

The Wildcats and Ducks both would be in
the national title game right now if not for slip-ups on Nov.17, when
Kansas State also lost, 52-24 at Baylor.

So while Oregon's failure to close the deal and return to the title game stings, this is quite the consolation prize.

Mind
you, none of this is to say that Kelly will beat the drum about the
cancellation to his players or make it the focal point over the next
month.

Kelly on Sunday voiced nothing but respect for Snyder.

"He'll
go down in history as one of the greatest college football coaches this
game has ever seen," Kelly said. "He's kind of a model of how to run
your program."

For Snyder, running his program meant avoiding
Oregon when his team's schedule was already pretty strong. The move
might have been good strategy for the Wildcats, but it hurt the Ducks.

On
one hand, it was a sign of respect for Oregon's prowess. But on the
other hand, it was a show of disrespect because the switch left Oregon
scrambling to fill that date and the Ducks ended up with an FCS school
instead of a Top 25 team out of the Big 12.